


Window of Opportunity

by eugyne (AreteNike)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Sheith Reverse Bang 2018, Time Loop, lance is a terrible wingman, set sometime before the end of s6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-15 09:38:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15410082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eugyne
Summary: Team Voltron is stuck in a time loop, and until they figure out how to escape it, they can do pretty much whatever they want with no consequences whatsoever.It may or may not be a good thing that Keith and Lance are the only ones who know.





	Window of Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

> STRAIGHT FROM THE BRAIN OF [ANIDRAGON](http://anidragon.tumblr.com/) who drew the art and therefore came up with the idea in the first place, this being a reverse bang. thanks ani for your patience with me ahaha
> 
> will i ever write a sheith piece without time/reality shenanigans? who knows

Lance isn't sure what just happened, but he _is_ pretty sure it's Keith's fault.

One minute, they're out in space, Lance in the red lion and Keith in his dinky little stolen galra fighter. Keith is yelling about some big cannon thing aimed at the both of them, but there are too many ships around, they can't get clear—maybe Keith could, his ship is small enough to slip away—and Red is pretty fast, but there are _too many ships_ —and then there's a flash of light.

The next minute, they're inexplicably back on the castle, in the hangar. Keith's in his Marmora armor but Lance is in street clothes, like that whole battle didn't happen at all.

"What did you do?" Lance accuses, rubbing his head. It doesn't hurt, particularly, but clearly he's sustained some sort of damage to have totally forgotten everything since the flash. He should head down to the infirmary just as soon as he gets an explanation.

"I didn't do anything!" Keith retorts. "You didn't get out of the way."

"Neither did you." At least, Lance is pretty sure he didn't. He was still there next to him when the flash happened, right?

"At least I _tried_ —what happened? We were hit, right? How'd we get back here?" Keith sits heavily on the bench, also rubbing his head. He looks up at Lance expectantly.

Oh god.

"You don't remember _either?_ " Lance whispers, and Keith pales.

They get about five seconds of horrified silence in before the doors slide open and Shiro walks in.

"Good, you made it in, Keith," he says. "We're still about six hours out from the Logar system, so you've got time before the final strategy meeting. You too, Lance."

The Logar system is where the battle took place. So if they're six hours out... they didn't just forget the end of the battle, they've forgotten the _six hours since._

Both stare at Shiro in continued horror.

"Guys?" Shiro says slowly. "Are you okay...? What are you doing?" Lance opens his mouth to speak, but Keith gets there first.

"Discussing strategy!" he blurts. He kicks Lance lightly—okay, so they're faking this? Keith better have a plan.

"R-right, uh," Lance stammers, searching for something to add. "Like, stuff we could do better. For... battle."

Shiro raises an eyebrow. "O...kay. If you come up with anything worth sharing, let us know at the meeting."

"We will!" Lance says, and Shiro gives them one final look before he leaves the hangar again. Lance and Keith meet eyes.

"Why didn't you want him to know what happened?" Lance asks. "Dude, we got hit with something that made us forget the past six hours. We might have, like, serious brain damage."

"We didn't forget!" Keith says as he stands. "He said we're six hours _out,_ meaning we haven't even gotten there yet. We time traveled."

"What?"

"And I don't know where you were six hours ago but I really don't want to run into my past self." Keith grabs his arm and starts pulling him out the door. "I think I was just heading up from the hangar at this point, so we should be okay, for me—where were you? We need to figure out how to get back to our own time so we can finish the battle, but it's probably not a good idea to let anyone see us."

Lance is still processing, and the fact that this is more than Keith usually says at once is not helping. "Hold up. Time travel? Really?"

"Well, what do _you_ think happened?!" Keith demands, shooting a glare over his shoulder. Lance lifts his free arm in surrender.

"Okay, okay! So we time traveled. What the hell are we supposed to do about it?"

"Not be seen, for one thing." Keith peers around the corner, then heads onward. "I dunno if it'd cause a paradox or something."

That's probably fair. Lance shakes Keith off his arm and follows him down the hallway.

"I was probably in my room," he says belatedly. "So we're not likely to run into me either. Where are we going?"

"Pidge's lab."

"We gonna tell her?"

"Not unless we have to."

Lance has a feeling they'll have to. "So we're just gonna mess with her stuff instead. Got it."

Keith shoots him another glare. "You got a better idea?"

"I mean," says Lance. "We could wait it out." Which seems like the safer option, honestly.

Keith stops. "What?"

"We could wait it out!" Lance shrugs. "If our past selves are gonna go into battle and get hit with that blast, then they'll get sent back in time too, and then they'll be us, and then _we'll_ be the only us-es here. Right?"

Keith frowns. "I... think that makes sense?"

"Yeah, and this way we don't have to face Pidge's wrath," Lance finishes triumphantly.

Keith leans against the wall, still frowning. "We won't know what caused it, though."

"We can tell everyone after, and let Pidge and Hunk figure it out without causing any paradoxes."

"We should... we can't warn ourselves," Keith mutters. "Then there'd be two of us."

"Exactly! We just have to let it happen, for now, and then we figure out how to stop it from happening again." Lance gestures. "Smooth sailing."

Keith makes a face.

"Unless you know how Pidge's stuff works, and how to unlock it, and how we got here in the first place," Lance adds pointedly.

Keith makes a face harder, then sighs and gives up. "Okay, fine," he says. "What do we do in the meantime?"

* * *

They're well into their fifth round of what Lance has dubbed "Space Uno" when the ship-wide comms light up.

"Paladins, please report to the bridge," Allura says, and Lance and Keith both look vaguely upward, like that'll help them listen.

"You too, Keith," Shiro adds, and the system clicks off. Lance meets Keith's eyes.

"Our other selves will go," says Keith.

"Yeah, I know that's what you _think_ will happen," says Lance. "But, like, what if it doesn't?"

"Why wouldn't it?"

"Uh, maybe if you're wrong?"

"Again: if you have any other ideas, I'm all ears."

Lance glares at him. Keith raises an eyebrow back. Lance sticks out his tongue and looks back down at his cards.

They wait.

"I should be there by now," Keith offers quietly, like he's been counting the seconds or something. Fucking nerd probably has travel times through the castle memorized.

"I was late," Lance responds. "By like, a minute."

They wait a minute. And then another.

Lance is starting to think they're in the clear when the comms crackle on again.

"Keith, where are you?" It's Shiro, and he sounds confused. "Lance, hurry up."

"Rude," Lance huffs under his breath. He's not _always_ late.

"I heard that." Oops. "Get up here, both of you." The comms click off.

Now it's Lance's turn to raise an eyebrow at Keith. "Still think our other selves are on their way?"

Keith blinks slowly. "Shit."

They scramble for the door.

Lance bursts onto the bridge in record time, Keith hot on his heels—stepping on his heels, in fact, so that they don't so much run through the door as tumble through it, sprawling ungracefully on the floor. Keith's elbow sticks a landing directly into Lance's kidney and he grunts with pain as the rest watch them with disapproval.

"Nice one, asshole," Lance mutters, hauling himself back up to his feet.

"Sorry," Keith mutters back.

"Where _were_ you?" Pidge asks.

"Um," says Keith.

"Exploring!" Lance blurts. "Y'know, like, really deep in the castle." Nailed it.

There's a long pause.

"If you say so," says Shiro. He's looking at them with a weird expression on his face. "Keep an eye on the clock next time."

"Will do!" Lance says with a mock salute. Shiro doesn't so much roll his eyes as look pleadingly to the heavens, but he lets it go, and the meeting begins. Lance doesn't pay much attention; he's already heard this stuff, after all.

And no other Lances or Keiths show up.

"So much for time travel," Lance says under his breath, elbowing Keith as they all head to the hangar. Keith huffs.

"Keith, Lance!" Shiro calls before they can go far. "A moment?"

Well, this didn't happen last time. They both turn back.

"What is it?" Keith asks.

Shiro rubs the back of his head, suddenly looking awkward. "I don't know what's going on with the two of you," he says quietly, once the others are out of earshot, "but you can't let it affect the team, alright? I'm glad you're... getting along, but the universe comes first. Is that clear?"

"...No?" Keith says, but oh god, Lance gets it. Lance knows _exactly_ what Shiro is thinking.

"Oh my god, _no_ ," he says quickly. "No no no, it's _not_ like that, holy shit. We're not— _no._ Nothing's happening."

Shiro visibly relaxes, thank god, and opens his mouth to speak. Unfortunately, Keith gets there first.

"Maybe we _should_ tell him," he says, turning to Lance as he ruins everything. Lance screeches and lunges to clamp a hand over his mouth, far, far too late.

"That's a different thing!" he squeaks at Keith. And to Shiro, "It's _really_ not what you think! I swear!"

Shiro doesn't look so sure anymore— _way to play favorites, Shiro_ —but he just nods slowly.

"Just... keep what I said in mind," he says, and heads off. Lance turns on Keith.

" _Dude_."

"What? If we didn't just time travel, we should—"

"He totally thought we were together!"

Keith blinks. "We... were?"

Lance smacks his forehead. "No, you idiot. _Together_ together. Like, dating, or something."

Keith pales. "Oh no. Oh, _no_."

" _Now_ you're getting it."

Keith clutches at his face. "I've ruined my chances _forever_."

"You—what?"

"Lance, come on!" Hunk calls over the comms, and Lance huffs.

"Okay, look, we can talk about this later," he says. "Right now, we have a battle to win. Okay?"

Keith looks at him through his fingers and nods.

"Then go!" Lance says, and he turns and heads down to his lion.

* * *

"Lance," Keith says, sometime in the middle of battle. "Which cannon was it that hit us last time?"

Lance pulls up on the controls, making Red loop back to shoot the fighters on his tail. "Uh? You were the one that saw it, buddy." He's been a little more focused on not dying; it's a tough battle even when he remembers some of the surprises.

"Yeah, but now I'm looking, and there are like, five of them."

Lance twists Red around to look, too, narrowly avoiding a blast from a nearby ion cannon. There are an awful lot of galra cruisers, and, frankly, all their cannons look weird.

"Uh." Lance takes a hit and spins around to destroy the fighter it came from. "I have no idea."

Keith makes an annoyed noise.

"I was kind of distracted, okay?!" Lance adds, and then he switches to the team-wide comms again. "Guys? I think it might be time for Voltron."

"Not yet," says Shiro, even though he's as swarmed as any of them. "There's too many. It's better to split their attention until we can thin the crowd."

"Okay, but there's like, a dozen cannons? Shouldn't we take them out?" Lance asks, a little desperately.

"We've done okay avoiding them so far."

Everyone groans. "Dude, you just jinxed us," Hunk adds.

"Shiro, I agree with Lance," Keith says. "Sooner or later, someone's gonna get hit. There's too many."

There's a loaded pause, as Red twists through space, avoiding and taking out fighters in equal measure, and for a moment Lance thinks Shiro is gonna agree. As always, his hopes are dashed.

"Just keep holding out, for now," Shiro says. "We don't need Voltron yet."

Lance groans. Keith is silent, until he opens the private line again.

"At least three of them are just regular ion cannons," he says. "But the rest, I don't _know._ You really have no idea?"

"No!" says Lance. "I'd rather not be hit by _any_ of them, anyway."

"Then stay alert," Keith says, like Lance isn't, and closes the line.

"Fuck that guy," Lance mutters to himself. He keeps fighting.

It's not long after—or maybe it _is_ long after, and only seems short in the heat of battle—that there's a muttered curse over the comms.

"Guys, I'm surrounded," Pidge says. "I can't get out—I think there's a cannon aimed at me—shit!"

"Pidge!" Keith shouts, and Lance twists around in time to see a flash of light hit the green lion dead-on. Her scream echoes through the comms and is suddenly cut off.

"Pidge!" Lance shouts too, echoed by Hunk and Allura. The green lion is floating, unresponsive and dark. The damage to its head is visible even from here.

"Pidge, are you there? Pidge!" Shiro calls. There's no response.

"Keith, is that what hit us last time?" Lance asks.

"I don't know, it hit me first—did I go dark?"

"I didn't see!"

"What?" Shiro chokes—they're still on the public line.

"Listen," Keith says. "Lance and I were hit by a blast like that—it sent us back in time, or something—"

"Um," Lance interrupts. He's found himself directly in front of one of the cruisers—right in the path of its fully-charged cannon. "I think I'm gonna—"

There's a flash of light.

* * *

Lance finds himself, once again, in the hangar with Keith.

"You got hit," says Keith, dropping heavily onto the nearest bench.

"No shit," says Lance. "God, I really don't wanna do this again." A whole six hours? With the same battle ahead? Hell no.

"Then don't get hit."

Lance fixes Keith with a look. "Apparently you got hit too, if you're here."

Keith frowns, but he looks away and doesn't respond. Yeah, he definitely got hit.

"Anyway," says Lance. "What did you mean before battle, about ruining your chances?"

Keith looks up at him. "What?"

"Y'know, after Shiro totally misinterpreted our lateness and you went and made it worse?" Lance flops onto the bench beside him.

Keith stiffens. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh. Well?"

"Um." Keith shrugs. "Just. If he thinks I'm with you, then..."

"Then what? You'll stop being his favorite?" Lance snorts. "Or was it your chances _with_ him?"

Keith turns red.

"Dude." Lance grins slowly. "You totally have a crush on him. Oh my god."

"Shut up!" Keith hides his face in his hands. "I don't!"

"You do!" Lance crows. "Oh man. You realize I have to be your wingman now, right? We gotta make this happen."

" _No_ —"

The hangar door opens and both freeze. Shiro walks in.

"Good, you made it in, Keith," he says. "We're still about six hours out from the Logar system, so you've got time before the final strategy meeting. You too, Lance."

"R-right!" Lance chokes out. Keith is making a valiant attempt to act normally beside him, but his face is still brilliantly red.

"...Are you okay?" Shiro asks him, because of course he noticed.

Keith's eyes widen. He looks around desperately. Lance elbows him.

"Say something, dude," he hisses.

"We're not dating!" Keith blurts.

Shiro blinks. Lance drops his head into his hands.

"Literally anything but that, dude. You blew it."

"Is there something I should know about?" Shiro asks cautiously.

"Nope! No," Lance says quickly. "He's just flustered because I was teasing him about his crush—"

Keith comes out of nowhere to clamp his hand over Lance's mouth, somehow even redder than before. Lance manages to wink at Shiro as he tries to shove him off.

Shiro's brow crinkles. Oh well, Lance _tried._

"Right, well... I'll leave you to it," Shiro says slowly. "Just show up to the meeting on time, okay?"

"Mmf!" Lance agrees, giving him a thumbs up. Shiro still looks confused, but he nods and leaves, and Keith _finally_ lets go.

"That was a disaster," Lance says, wiping his mouth. "You realize this, right? You're a disaster."

"Shut up, I panicked," Keith mutters.

"Aren't you supposed to be good under pressure? Wait, don't answer that."

Keith gives him a look that's half glare, half desperation.

"Okay, okay, listen," Lance says, holding his hands up in surrender. "We're stuck in some sort of, like, time loop, right? And we know it was caused by that new cannon thing but it's not like we can do anything about it for the next six hours, right?"

"...Right?"

"So." He sits back, crossing his arms. "Since we can't do anything productive anyway, in the meantime, I'm gonna help you land your man."

Keith takes a deep breath and lets it out very, very slowly.

"That's a _terrible_ idea," he says.

"I don't hear you saying no." Lance grins at him. Keith's face grows increasingly distraught—probably trying to find a good reason to say no, Lance figures. He clearly _wants_ to say yes.

Sure enough, Keith sighs. "Okay," he says, and Lance woops.

"Operation 'Get Keith Laid' is a go!"

Keith sputters and goes red again. This is going to be so much fun.

* * *

"Operation GKL, step one," Lance announces. "We're gonna teach you how to flirt."

"I changed my mind," says Keith.

"No take-backsies. Here's what you're gonna do: Shiro's on the bridge, right?"

"...Yes," Keith says, with extreme reluctance.

"Okay, so. You're going to go up to him, and you need to lean _casually_ against the console—don't accidentally hit something important, though, that's not smooth—"

Keith rolls his eyes. "You have personal experience, I know."

"Shut it—and then you're gonna give him a _line_."

"A line."

"A _line_."

Keith sighs. "You're not gonna tell me to use one of your terrible pick-up lines, are you?"

"They're not terrible, and yes I am."

"Absolutely not."

"No, listen to me. Listen." Lance grabs Keith's shoulders and gives him a pointed look. "You physically cannot screw this up. Even if you weren't his favorite."

"No? What?" Keith makes a face but Lance presses on.

" _Listen._ You have the perfect excuse." Lance gives him a shake as emphasis. "Time travel! Or whatever the hell happened to us. If it goes bad you make up some bullshit about how since we got rewound somehow you're like, out of it, or like, from an alternate reality or something. I mean, we went to an alternate reality, so it's not that far-fetched—"

"He wasn't there for that."

"Doesn't matter! I'm just saying, things are screwy anyway, so on the _exceedingly rare_ chance it backfires, you have a ready-made excuse. Also!" Lance lets him go. "You realize if we can't figure out what happened or how to stop it, we'll probably just end up repeating this all again."

"That's not encouraging." Keith pauses. "I mean. It's kind of encouraging, even if it's also sort of... counterproductive."

"That's the spirit!" Which it isn't, but Lance is gonna take what he can get. "Alright. Here's your line: are you an alien? 'Cause you're out of this world!"

Keith stares at him.

"It's space themed," Lance presses.

"It... doesn't make any sense? We aren't even on a world—I'm not asking Shiro if he's an alien!"

"Remember what I said—"

"He's gonna think I'm insane."

"He's not gonna take it literally," Lance says firmly. "The point of a pick-up line isn't to make sense, it's to express interest. You're just telling him you think he's cool, okay?"

"And I can't just say that?"

Lance gives him a look. " _Can_ you?"

Keith frowns for a moment, but then he looks away. Yep.

"Embrace the ridiculousness of it," Lance adds. "You'll probably get a laugh if nothing else. Now go!" He gives Keith a little shove towards the bridge.

"I still don't think this is a good idea," Keith says, but by some miracle he goes. Lance watches eagerly from the doorway as Keith goes up to where Shiro is standing and not so much _leans_ on the console as put a hand on it and awkwardly shift his weight.

Well. Failed step one. But that's okay, Lance figures, they can still salvage this.

"Hey, Keith," Shiro greets. "Something you need?"

Keith glances toward Lance. Lance gives him a thumbs up.

"A-are you an alien?" Keith blurts, and Lance tries not to cringe.

Shiro turns to face Keith fully, and that can't be a good sign—but Lance can't really see his face from here, so maybe...

"Are... you feeling okay?" Shiro says. "You've been acting oddly since you arrived."

Shit.

"I'm... great, why?" Keith chokes out.

"You just asked me if I'm an alien," Shiro points out, gently, like he's talking to a frightened animal. "Unless it's about... my arm? But we’ve been over it—Pidge has examined every word of code—"

"It's 'cause you're out of this world!" Keith interrupts with about as much desperation as when Shiro had gone missing in the first place.

There's a very long pause.

"You know what? Never mind," Keith says, slowly. "I'm just gonna go murder Lance now. Bye."

"...Lance?" Shiro asks, belatedly, but Keith is already halfway to the door.

"Never mind!" he calls back again, and comes back into the hallway. The door slides shut. He glares at Lance.

"Okay, in fairness, your delivery sucked," Lance defends.

" _Lance_."

"And it was probably weird coming from you, because you _are_ a pretty literal person," he adds. "So like. My bad?"

"LANCE."

"We can still salvage this?"

Keith huffs and buries his face in his hands. "How?!"

"No, okay, look, we jumped in too fast, so we need to back up, alright? We need to start from the top." Lance takes a deep breath. "Operation GKL, step zero: basic human interaction."

Keith groans.

* * *

By the time they're an hour out from the meeting, and an hour and a half out from the Logar system, Lance has imparted damn near all of his romantic knowledge on Keith, only for it all to be wasted on a series of increasingly awkward interactions with Shiro. Lance has pretty much stopped listening in; it's too painful.

"You should know he's about an inch away from sticking me in a healing pod," Keith says flatly, emerging from his latest attempt.

"I was really sure that line would work," Lance defends, admittedly weakly, because at this point the situation may be beyond salvation.

"He asked me if I'd been concussed. I think he suspects body snatchers."

"Those don't actually exist." Lance pauses. "Do they?"

"Wouldn't surprise me." Keith shrugs violently. "I don't know! This isn't working! It's pointless, anyway, we have more important things to be worrying about and I'm too tired to deal with this shit anymore."

"Rude," Lance says, and caves. "But, fine, we'll put this on hold for now. And we should probably tell someone what happened." He starts towards the bridge door but Keith catches his arm.

"I'm _not_ going back in there," he hisses.

"Shiro's, like, in charge—"

"We're better off telling Pidge and Hunk, anyway. If it's something technical, they'll know better, anyway." Keith pauses. "And I guess Coran?"

"The more the merrier. And if anything like this has happened before, the— _wait a tick_." Lance turns and grabs Keith's shoulders again.

"Stop doing that—"

"Pidge got hit!"

Keith blinks.

"Before us," Lance clarifies. "She got hit by the cannon before us. Which means—even if the others don't remember—"

"She will," Keith finishes, wide-eyed. "Let's go!"

He starts down towards the hangar, leaving Lance to hurry to catch up.

* * *

"Pidge!" Lance and Keith both shout, almost in unison as they enter the hangar. Burst into it, really, barely any more gracefully than they'd entered the bridge last loop, but that's beside the point.

She looks up. "Uh... hi?"

"The cannon, did you see which one it was—"

"Did it drop you here? You weren't with us—"

"What... the hell," she says, looking between the two of them.

"It's a time loop," Lance presses, stomach sinking. "Y'know, in the battle that's about to happen?" Damn, maybe she _doesn't_ remember.

"The cannon hit you before it hit us last time," Keith adds. "This'll be our third time through."

Pidge puts down the tool in her hands slowly. "You're telling me you time traveled?"

Lance and Keith look at each other.

"She doesn't remember," says Keith.

"I'd figured that out, yeah," says Lance. "No, it wasn't time travel, or there'd be like three of each of us by now. It rewound us."

"We're repeating the same six hours again." Keith shrugs. "We couldn't figure out what did it last time, but we saw you get hit by something and disappear, so we thought maybe you'd remember."

"Well," says Pidge. "I don't. Why six hours?"

Lance shrugs.

"And you don't know what did it?"

"It was a cannon," says Keith.

"You just said you didn't know."

"There's gonna be a lot of cannons."

"...So you're just gonna keep trying to avoid it until you figure out which one it is?"

"Yeah?"

Pidge purses her lips. "Not to sound like Shiro, but... when was the last time you guys slept?"

Lance opens his mouth, and closes it again, because he was gonna say "this morning" but that was actually more than ten hours longer ago than it would normally be, and they still have another hour or so to go. Keith shifts awkwardly next to him.

"It's been a while," he says.

"So you really think you're gonna be at your best?"

The pause that follows is as awkward as all of Keith's flirting attempts combined.

"Good luck not getting killed, let alone hit, then," Pidge says, brow furrowed. "And even if you nap now, there's no time left for the rest of us to figure out what happened to you." She puts her hands on her hips. "The best you can hope for right now is that you get hit by your cannon quickly this time. Next loop? Tell us what happened immediately, then just go to sleep. Seriously."

She's probably right, as usual. Lance sighs and slouches. Not that he wants to redo everything _again,_ but he'd... definitely like to sleep. Sleep would be good.

"Honestly? I'm okay with erasing today from existence," Keith says, and he has a point too. Lance's head snaps up.

"Keith," he says, urgently. "Keith."

"No. Absolutely not."

"We're _free from consequences for the next hour!_ Keith, holy shit."

Keith blinks. "We're not? We... we are. Holy shit."

Pidge grins. "Godspeed, my friends. Wreak your sleep-deprived havoc."

"Hell yeah!" Lance grabs Keith's arm and starts dragging him out of the hangar. "Thanks Pidge!"

"You're planning something," Keith accuses, shaking himself free. He still follows when Lance heads back up towards the bridge.

"Naturally."

"And I'm guessing it isn't napping."

"Nope!"

"If you're going to just give me another pick-up line..."

"Nope! You're not gonna use a line." Lance grins, and turns to Keith outside the bridge. "You're just gonna go make out with him."

Keith balks. "What?!"

"No consequences, Keith!" Lance pats Keith's shoulders for emphasis. "No! Consequences! Go kiss him!"

"I can't just—"

"You _can_ just. If it goes bad, he's just gonna forget anyway!" Lance holds up a finger. "And if it goes well? You'll know for next time."

Keith's face does something complicated for a moment, but then the moment passes and it settles into determination. And he turns and walks through the door. _Yes._

"Keith," Shiro says when he approaches. "Are you feeling any bett—"

"Can I kiss you?" Keith interrupts.

And Shiro just _freezes._ Just goes still like a statue, and Lance can see even from back here he's blushing. Keith glances over, and Lance gives him two thumbs up and a grin, because he's got this. He's _got_ him.

Keith takes a deep breath and reaches up, wraps his hands around the back of Shiro's neck.

"Just... stop me if you don't want this," he says, and he pulls him down and he _goes for it._

Shiro definitely doesn't stop him. Lance whoops. Angels sing. _Finally._

"O-oh," is the first thing Shiro says when they surface. "That, um. Explains a lot." He glances around, sees Lance still in the doorway. "A lot."

Keith... basically just faceplants into Shiro's chest (a good place to faceplant, probably) as Lance approaches. "I've wanted to do that for so long," he admits, and from the way Shiro goes red again, maybe Lance should've just told Keith to tell it straight. Goddamn.

Shiro looks down at him, over at Lance, down at Keith again. "Er. Not that I'm complaining—I'm definitely not complaining—but, why now?"

Right, yeah, the time loop thing. Lance takes a deep breath, and starts to explain. Keith interjects here and there and does not for a moment let go of Shiro. Shiro doesn't seem to mind.

"I see," Shiro says when they're done. "Let's try not to get hit, then."

"Well, obviously," says Lance. "But without knowing at least which cannon it was, there's not a lot we can do."

"You're sure you won't recognize it?"

"We didn't last time."

Shiro sighs. "We'll have to discuss this at the strategy meeting. This changes all our plans."

Keith groans. Shiro rubs his back.

"You could have told me sooner," he says, with such an absurd amount of fondness that Lance isn't sure if Shiro's still talking about the time loop thing, but is sure he'd be telling them to get a room under any other circumstances.

"Our plans were gonna be ruined anyway," Keith mumbles. At least he turns his head so he's no longer speaking directly to Shiro's nipples. "They're gonna have almost twice as many cruisers as we predicted."

Shiro makes a face, and then he leans over—without letting go of Keith—to hit a button on the console.

"Team, please come up to the bridge," he says. "We have new information to review before battle."

Admittedly, Lance _was_ kind of hoping to sneak in a nap before the meeting, but hey! At least he isn't late, for once.

* * *

Fortunately for all of them, Shiro still has some sense of decorum, and so he and Keith have a solid six inches of space between them by the time everyone else makes it up to the bridge. Unfortunately, he's right: this changes all their plans.

"If it was one of the ion cannons that caused the looping, then we need to prioritize taking them out," Allura says. "Or else all this will be for naught."

"Not that I don't like that plan—I definitely don't wanna do this _again_ —but part of the reason we didn't do that already was that there was like, an absurd number of fighters," Lance points out. "I mean, the other reason was that we hadn't told you guys about the looping, but..."

"If we form Voltron right away, we _will_ be swarmed," Keith adds. "We were anyway, and their attention was split between all of us."

"We can prioritize the cannons without forming Voltron," Shiro says. "If we all go straight for a cannon, each, as soon as the cruisers show up—"

"The fighters will make that difficult."

"We usually have time between their arrival and the fighter's launch to make a move. Is that not true of this battle?"

Keith and Lance exchange a glance.

"Half of them will already be there," Lance says. "Like, we're showing up late to battle. The fighters will already be fighting."

Shiro rubs his forehead. "Then, we form Voltron immediately and use the shoulder cannon?"

"Thin the crowd. Got it," says Hunk.

"There's just one problem," Pidge says. "Keith and Lance have been awake a lot longer than the rest of us."

"Only like... eight hours longer," says Lance. "So like, 18 hours or so? I'm good. Wait, no." He counts back in his head. "Maybe 20? I forgot to count the battle the first time."

"It's probably been at least 26 for me," Keith says quietly.

Shiro gives him a look. " _Keith_."

"I had to get here in the first place?"

Allura eyes them. "What will this affect?"

"Reaction times, decision making, memory problems... I can go on," Pidge says.

"You're exaggerating," Lance accuses.

"Mood problems, too." She grins at him and he flips her off. Shiro clears his throat.

"If we fail, you two will just repeat all this again, right?" he asks.

"Probably," says Keith.

"Yeah," says Lance.

Shiro sighs. "Then, at least pay attention to how well this works. And if we fail, don't wait so long to tell us next time." He pauses. "And then get some sleep."

"That's what _I_ said," Pidge says.

Now Allura sighs. "Are we all clear on the plan?"

"Form Voltron, blast the fighters, take out the cannons," Hunk lists. "Yeah, I think I got it."

"Then get ready!" Coran calls from across the bridge. "We're nearly there!"

They split up to do so. As he goes, Lance glances back in time to see Shiro catch Keith's arm, pulling him in close. He grins and heads down to his lion.

* * *

"I didn't want to say this, but," Shiro says, "we need to split up."

Keith doesn't want to agree, either, but he has to. Voltron has managed to take out a handful of cannons already, but there are still half a dozen more left to go. They still don't know which one caused the loop—the chance is less than 50% that they've hit it already.

And, as predicted, they've been swarmed. It might be easier if all the drones couldn't somehow tell he isn't one of them, despite flying the exact same ship, forcing him to stick close to Voltron and therefore be trapped with them.

"We could try the shoulder cannon again?" Hunk offers, snapping Keith back out of his thoughts—he'd only spaced out for half a second, but that's half a second too long.

He doesn't want to admit that the others were right about the sleep deprivation thing, either, but yeah. He's exhausted.

"I don't think that'll work at this range," Shiro says. "We need to divide their attention. Split up—Hunk, Pidge, you two take one cannon, and Allura and I will take another. Keith, Lance, you two cover us as best you can."

"Got it," Keith says along with the rest, but Shiro's smile on the comm screen is just for him. He could have had this so much sooner—no, focus. They're in battle, dammit.

Voltron splits, and Lance opens a comm line.

"I think this is about when we got hit last time," he says. "I mean, my counting might be off, but we've been at this a couple hours by now, right?"

"I wasn't paying attention to the time," Keith admits. He ducks around a cluster of fighters, shooting several in one go before turning to see all but the red lion heading towards the cruisers.

"Figures." Lance takes out the rest of the cluster. "Neither of us are in range for any of their cannons, though, so we're probably good. Right?"

"Right," Keith says uneasily. That just means the others could get hit instead—and then he won't remember what happened next loop. Probably. He has no idea how this all works—that's for the others to figure out.

Though maybe if the others remember instead of him, they'll have a better chance of figuring it out.

Focus. He dodges more fighters and scans the battlefield. Something catches his eye, amidst the massive dark husk of a cruiser to one side, a wreck Voltron created; the fighters have moved on from it, there's nothing there to draw their attention. But there's a glimmer there, among the floating debris—a spot of light that's growing, and it's not like any explosion he's seen before. Something sinks in his gut.

"Lance, do you see that?" he asks, pulling his ship around to point towards it.

"The ship we murdered? Yeah."

"No, inside it."

There's a pause. "Mystery light. Got it. I don't remember that from last time."

"Me neither." Keith switches to the team channel. "Guys, there's something weird over in that ruined ship. I'm gonna go check it out."

"Be careful," says Shiro.

"I will." As much as the situation calls for, anyway. He darts out of the fight; a handful of fighters follow but with Lance covering him it's easy enough to shake them, and then he's heading for the light.

And the light is heading for him, or so he thinks at first—but when he pulls up, around, he can see it's not moving, but growing. But it's growing slowly, and slower by the second, like... like an inflating balloon.

He'd better figure out what's causing it before it pops. He dives in closer, scanning the wreckage. A lot of it is still sparking, glowing red with the heat of the explosion that tore it apart—some pieces look they might have come from some sort of control console, but it's not clear which, if any, are causing the light.

"Find anything?" Shiro asks.

"I can't tell where it's coming from." He's just getting more uneasy as he lingers here, and the light has all but stopped growing. "I'm coming back, I don't think—"

The light pops—he sees the moment it does, before everything is lost in white.

And then he's back in the hangar again.

"It wasn't a cannon," he says slowly, turning to Lance. "It was that light."

Lance's eyes widen, and he straightens up. "Did you see what caused it?"

Keith shakes his head. "It was all wreckage. Either there was something small enough to be hidden _inside_ the light, or it was... created remotely, somehow. Like a bomb."

"A magic bomb that sends us back in time." Lance pouts and flops onto the bench. "Great."

Keith sits, too. "At least we know more than we did before?"

"Yeah, well. Doesn't do us a lotta good anyway, does it?"

"We'll just tell the others. They'll figure it out."

Lance groans at that and flops sideways, bringing his feet up dangerously close to Keith's thigh. He eyes them warily as the hangar doors open.

"Good, you made it in, Keith," Shiro says. "We're still about six hours out—"

"We know," Keith and Lance say in unison, and Shiro blinks, stopping in his tracks.

"We're stuck in a time loop," Lance adds. "We've done this like three times already."

"...Huh," Shiro says. He still looks kind of shocked and it's honestly adorable—and Keith doesn't have to hold back now. He knows where they stand, or at least, where they _will._

So he gets up, and he approaches Shiro.

"We have a lot to explain," he says. "But first—"

And he kisses him. Dips him, even, because he can, and he might as well go all in. Shiro freezes for all of a millisecond before he responds, clinging as hard to Keith as Keith is to him. Lance gives a tired cheer behind them.

Shiro looks a little dazed when Keith finally pulls him back up to standing, and he’s more than a little pleased about that.

"Whoa," Shiro says, faintly. And then reddens and gives himself a little shake. "I, uh. Okay. That's... yes." He clears his throat. "You said... something about a time loop?" He glances over at Lance, who's still grinning at them.

"Yeah, let's get everyone together. I'm exhausted and I only want to explain this once." Keith rubs his forehead. What he really wants is to kiss Shiro again. And nap. Definitely some napping in there somewhere.

* * *

"So, you two are stuck in a time loop, lasting about 8 hours, caused by a weird flash of light in the upcoming battle, that isn't from an ion cannon," Hunk lists. "Did I get everything?"

"Yup," Lance groans. He started the conversation standing with the rest of them but is now slumped in his seat nearby. Keith can't blame him—it's only Shiro's firm grip on his shoulder that's keeping him upright.

"And you want us to figure it out for you," Pidge says.

"Well, you're you."

"We tried," Keith adds.

"I have some ideas!" Coran pipes up. "But I'm not sure we'll have the time to investigate fully."

"Then we'd better get started," says Allura.

"I'll review our battle plans, then," Shiro says as the others file off the bridge. "You two must have some information about what we're going to face."

Lance moans. "Sleep now. Plan later."

Shiro frowns and opens his mouth, but Keith tugs on his arm, and finally succumbs to gravity, leaning hard into Shiro's chest.

"I haven't slept since this started," he mumbles into his shoulder, cutting off whatever Shiro was going to say. "Can't we just take this loop off to take a nap?"

"...All right," Shiro says at length, resting his hands on Keith's shoulders. "That's fine. Lance, if you're going to sleep, you might as well do it in your bed."

Lance mumbles something incoherent. Shiro turns towards him, dislodging Keith, who whines despite himself. Shiro makes a little huff that might be a laugh, wraps an arm more firmly around Keith's back, and leads him over to Lance.

"Up and at 'em, buddy," he says, tugging on Lance's arm. Lance pouts but he stands, and Shiro shepherds the both of them off the bridge.

They drop off Lance first—he stumbles through his bedroom door and immediately flops face first onto his bed. He's already snoring by the time his door slides shut.

At Keith's door, Shiro starts to let go of him, but Keith only holds on tighter.

"Stay," he says stubbornly. Shiro is warm and he's _Shiro_ and Keith hasn't slept in almost 30 hours but he knows what he wants, and that's to absolutely not let go under any circumstances.

"I... I should help the others," Shiro says.

"You don't sleep enough anyway."

Shiro stiffens for a moment—a low blow, maybe—but then he sighs and lets Keith pull him into his room and onto his bed.

"You're sure?" he asks, as Keith sheds some armor and nudges him into ideal cuddling position.

"Mhm," says Keith, and promptly passes out.

He wakes again far too soon, thanks to a quiet beeping somewhere to the side of the bed. Beneath him, Shiro sighs softly and fumbles for his tablet. The beeping stops, and Keith nuzzles further into his chest.

"You can sleep a little longer if you want, Keith, but I have to get up," Shiro says, voice thick with sleep. Keith can feel the rumble of it against his cheek.

"Mnn."

"We'll reach the Logar system in about an hour. We have to get ready."

Reluctantly, Keith pushes himself up, sitting back on his heels. Five-ish hours isn't nearly enough to make up for what he lost, but it's bound to be better than nothing—even if he feels completely terrible now.

Shiro grins and reaches forward as he sits up too, running a hand through Keith's hair like he's trying to flatten it. "Morning, sleepy head. Feel better?"

"No."

Shiro snorts. Keith kisses him, because he can do that now.

"Keith," Shiro says when they part. "I have a question."

"Yeah?"

"Did something... happen? Last loop?" Shiro looks off to the side, not meeting Keith's eyes. "You aren't usually this... clingy. Not that I'm complaining."

"Yeah," Keith says, making Shiro flinch, ever so slightly. "Lance tried to teach me to flirt. You were probably one bad pickup line from sticking me in a healing pod, before I gave up and just kissed you."

"...Oh." Shiro doesn't laugh like Keith thought he would. "Oh, okay, so you just—okay."

"...What?"

"Nothing."

"Shiro." Keith squishes his cheeks, making Shiro furrow his brow in response. "Seriously."

"Seriously. Never mind." Shiro gently moves his hands. "Was anyone hurt last battle? Avoiding that should be our top priority."

And then it clicks. "You thought something happened to _you_."

"Well... yes."

"No, but now I'm gonna be worrying about that." Keith makes a face. Shiro squeezes his hands.

"That's why I didn't want to bring it up. But then—why?"

Now it's Keith's turn to look away. "I just... wanted this for a really long time."

This time Shiro does laugh, and pulls him into a tight hug. "Me too," he says. And then, after a moment, "We really should get out of bed, now, though."

* * *

"I'm sorry to say that I was completely right," Coran announces once they've all gathered on the bridge again. "Five vargas simply wasn't enough time."

"But the good news is, we've figured out a way around that for the next loop," Pidge says smugly.

"What, did you find a way to remember like we do?" Lance asks.

"Sort of!"

Keith exchanges a look with Lance.

"And that is...?" he asks.

"If you two are the only ones who'll remember," says Coran, "then we just need to make sure you remember the right things!"

"...If you really think you're gonna be able to teach me astrophysics or whatever in the next..." Lance checks an imaginary watch. "Half a varga or so, then, I gotta tell ya, I don't think it's gonna happen."

"No need! We've already backed up all our relevant thoughts in the memory extractor. All we need to do is implant them into _your_ heads, and we're off!"

"Like a human flash drive," Pidge says, looking entirely too pleased with the situation. Keith exchanges another look with Lance.

"For the record? I thought it was weird, too," says Hunk.

"If you don't wanna do it, you can just keep looping for the rest of forever," Pidge offers.

"No, we'll do it," Keith says quickly.

"Don't volunteer me!" Lance elbows Keith, before turning back to Pidge and Coran. "I'll do it."

Keith resists rolling his eyes, but only barely.

"And there's no way we can simply avoid the situation, is there?" Shiro says, looking about as uncomfortable as Keith feels.

"According to Lance, the system will already be engaged in battle by the time we arrive," Allura says, and Lance nods. "We cannot just abandon them to their fate."

Shiro nods shortly. "I understand. Then... the rest of us will forget all of this?"

There's a moment of silence.

"Based on every other loop? Yeah," Lance says finally, with less of his usual bluster. Shiro edges closer to Keith, and Keith takes his hand.

"Let's just get this over with," he says, and they head down to the pods.

Keith has to admit that it's more than a little weird, seeing the glowing memories floating in the tank by his pod, ready to be injected into his head. Especially knowing they had to have been sucked out of Pidge, Hunk, and Coran minutes earlier. He tries to push that thought away, even as Lance complains about it and Pidge teases. He gets in the pod.

"Good luck?" Shiro offers.

"Like there's anything I can do about it," Keith says, and the pod slides shut.

...And then opens again. Keith blinks, confused.

"Seems to have worked!" Coran says brightly, out of sight. Shiro steps closer to Keith's pod and cups his cheek.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"It's over already?"

"Yeah. Can you tell if the memories are there?"

If he thinks about it, yeah. Hazy, as if viewed through a film. Which is good, because it's not immediately clear whose memory is whose, until he focuses on who's visible and who isn't. It's confusing, and he mostly doesn't want to think about it.

"Yeah," he says eventually. "Kinda weird, but yeah."

"Good." Shiro helps him out of the pod. "We ought to get ready, then."

Like last loop, Shiro pulls him aside as the rest head down to their lions, just for a moment. This time, though, he hesitates.

"I wanted to say," he says slowly, "that... I love you. I just want you to remember that, even if I forget."

Keith's heart skips a beat. He didn't say that last time—Keith didn't expect him to say it this time. Maybe this thing between them has been mutual longer than he thought.

"I—I love you, too," he breathes. And, "Did you love me six hours ago?"

"...Yeah?" Shiro's brow crinkles.

"Then you don't have to worry about forgetting." Keith pulls him down to his level and kisses him, briefer than he'd like. Long enough that someone's questioning voice sounds faintly from the helmet under Shiro's arm.

Shiro won't remember this next loop, sure, but Keith is happy to do this again. And again, and again; as many times as it takes.

* * *

The first thing Lance does, the moment he finds himself back in the hangar, is groan loudly and flop directly onto the floor. Only Keith is there to witness his dramatics, but he's pretty sure he understands—at least, Keith sighs and slumps onto the bench just barely in Lance's view, so yeah, probably.

Neither say anything. Lance silently debates the merits of napping through this loop, too. Last time wasn't really enough.

"Good, you made it in, Keith." Shiro shows up soon enough, as always. "We're still about... six hours out... Are you two okay?"

Lance offers a thumbs up from the floor. "Just stuck in a time loop, thanks."

"...What?"

Lance lets Keith explain this time, as he slowly drags himself back up to standing. He really ought to take advantage of this looping thing like Keith is doing—taking chances without fear of the consequences. There's so much dumb shit he's always wanted to do.

But, nap first.

"We should gather everyone and fill them in," Shiro says shortly. "You're sure they can extract these memories?"

"They seemed pretty sure," Lance says, and Shiro nods. The three of them start up to the bridge; Lance hangs back a bit, trailing behind Shiro and tugging on Keith's hood to keep him back too.

"You're not gonna jump him this time?" he asks quietly. "Not that I mind like, giving you guys a little privacy, I'm just surprised."

Keith shrugs. "Business before pleasure?"

Lance snorts loudly. Shiro glances over his shoulder at them but doesn't comment.

So they explain everything to everyone all over again, and they get the memories transferred mostly intact, and then Keith pulls Shiro aside and Lance decides that as fun as it is to cheer them on, he doesn't _really_ need to see them make out again. Which means it's nap time.

Fortunately—or maybe unfortunately—Lance really doesn't need another full five hours of sleep. Which means he wakes up after three, which means he has some time to kill.

First things first: seeing what everyone else is up to. He finds Pidge and Hunk first, working in the hangar with Coran. It's pretty much guaranteed he's not gonna understand what they're talking about, but he looks intently over their shoulder for a bit anyway. Whatever their solution-in-progress is, it seems to be more theoretical than mechanical at this point, but he kinda didn't really think they could just build a magic button or something to stop the looping anyway.

He gets bored soon enough and heads up to the bridge, but Shiro and Keith are discussing battle strategies with Allura, so he leaves before they try and rope him in, too.

No one’s being interesting right now, _but_ everyone’s out of their rooms, which means Lance has free rein to set up all the pranks he wants—except, wait. No one will see them before the reset. Dammit, there goes half his ideas.

Well, there's always the mice. And Kaltenecker.

By the time Allura calls for everyone to gather, Lance has redecorated Kaltenecker's enclosure, built essentially a giant mouse playground in the dining room, and half-dismantled the kitchen in the process. Basically, he's made a huge mess.

And no one will _ever know._

Feeling probably a little more self-satisfied than strictly necessary, Lance heads up to the bridge.

"Did you guys figure it out?" he asks as he enters.

"No," Pidge and Hunk say in unison. Great.

"Alright, so we're looping again. I guess we can't just not go into battle, huh?" He flops into his seat. He can't exactly goof off during battle, or instead of it; there's no guarantee the loop will happen this time (though he's pretty sure it will), and, well. He's not sure what'll happen if he dies before the loop resets, but he's not too eager to find out.

"Afraid not," says Shiro. "But we _are_ going to do things a little differently this time."

"I'm going to sneak onboard one of the cruisers," Keith continues. "Even if it wasn't an ion cannon, it came from the galra. They have to have some information about it."

Lance slaps his hand to his chest dramatically. "Keith, buddy, you're _abandoning_ me? Getting surrounded by fighters together is our _thing_."

Keith is definitely fighting back a grin when he says, "I thought it was time I start seeing other people."

Lance cackles at that, and Hunk sputters. Shiro covers his eyes with one hand and shakes his head slowly, but he's clearly also trying not to smile.

"By 'seeing other people,' he means kissing Shiro," Pidge translates blandly to the Alteans. They don't look any less confused.

* * *

Keith knows perfectly well that his only extraction plan is to ride out the loop. He also knows that if he can find a way to stop it, he's going to do it anyway. He promised Shiro he was only coming here for information, but... there's more at stake here than either of them.

But he has something to look forward to, now, if he can get back to Shiro after, which is why he takes a little more care than he would otherwise in docking his stolen fighter and covering his tracks. If he fails, the loop will proceed; if he succeeds, maybe he can still get out of here.

With that in mind, he creeps up to an unmanned console just outside the hangar and activates it. His galran is still barely passable, but it's enough to navigate through the records accessible at this level.

He finds nothing at all. And he's running out of time—by Lance's count, the loop should be repeating soon. There's nothing for it; he just has to get to the bridge, and quickly, and find out what they know from there.

He hasn't taken more than two steps away from the console when it starts beeping urgently. He looks back; the ship's sensors are going haywire. There's a loud metallic groan as the ship abruptly changes course, and footsteps approaching; Keith ducks into the shadows of a nearby maintenance passage.

There's shouting over the comm—he hears Lance's name called several times—but he can't worry about that now. He shuts it off.

"—in space-time," a voice says, down the hall. "It's growing, but I don't know what it'll do—we've never picked up something like this before."

"Must be that Voltron's fault," another voice says derisively. "It didn't show up until they did. Keep an eye on it."

"Vrepit sa!"

One set of footsteps continues on. The other stops at the console. Keith watches from his hiding place. He missed the crucial part of the conversation, but he did learn one thing—the galra aren't the ones causing the loop. They're caught in it, same as Voltron is.

And if they're to be believed, the only way to stop it from happening is to not show up at all—but that's not an option.

Frustrated, Keith draws his knife and creeps up behind the technician. In one move he ambushes him, taking him down and knocking his helmet free. He holds his knife to his throat.

"What is it?" he asks.

"What?" The startled galra squirms a little in his grip, before Keith presses his knife in closer.

"The thing your sensors are picking up," Keith clarifies. They're beeping louder than before. "What is it?"

"I'm not—" The galra swallows. "I'm not telling you that."

Keith pushes his knife harder against his throat. "By the sound of those sensors, it's getting close to exploding. Am I wrong?"

The galra hisses but doesn't respond.

"Come on!" Keith shouts, shaking the galra. There's a warning siren, and then—light.

And then Keith is in the castleship hangar again. He breathes deeply, in and out, and then he turns to tell Lance what he learned this time.

But Lance isn't there.

Keith freezes. There'd been that yelling over the comms—he hadn't listened, though. If something happened to him... When Pidge had been hit by an ion cannon, she'd been fine when the loop reset, but she hadn't remembered the looping anyway. But Lance _had,_ so...

Keith runs out of the hangar and almost collides with Shiro.

"Whoa! Hey, Keith, glad you made it in." Shiro's brow scrunches. "Is something wrong?"

"Where's Lance?" Keith pants.

"...In his room, I assume. Why?"

"I'll explain later." Keith squeezes Shiro's shoulder, and then he's off running again. During the first loop Lance _had_ said he'd been in his room before the looping began, so if he's there now, he's probably forgotten everything. If he isn't there... Keith doesn't want to think about that.

He skids into the residential hallway and pounds on Lance's door.

"What, what?" Lance calls from inside. The door slides open and his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline.

"You're here," Keith breathes.

"...Yeah?"

"You don't remember any of it, do you?"

"...Remember what?"

Keith sighs. "We're stuck in a time loop. For almost two days now. We keep going into battle and then a couple hours in it just... resets, and we're the only ones who remember. But... I guess it's just me, now."

Lance blinks slowly, and then he leans against the doorframe. "...Wow. Okay. No, I don't remember."

The shouting had been pretty alarmed, if Keith thinks back about it. Terrified, even. He'd been just so focused on his task...

"I guess something happened to you," he says finally, and suddenly Lance is hugging him.

"Well, I'm okay now," he says over Keith's shoulder. "Sorry I forgot another bonding moment."

Keith very tentatively returns the hug. "For all you know, we could've spent the whole time fighting."

"Nah, we're friends now, right? And anyway, you looked upset, so I figure we had to have had some good times." Lance gives him a final pat on the back before he steps away again. "Soooo... did you figure out how to stop this time loop thing, or...?"

"Oh," Keith says. "No, but I learned something new this time. Come on, we—I have to tell everyone."

Lance follows him as he turns to head up to the bridge. "You're not gonna, like, stealth it out? Pretend you can see the future or something? I would."

"We sort of tried that. Wasn't worth it."

"Damn."

* * *

It's harder to explain this time, without Lance helping, but Hunk and Pidge are still willing to take their memories back from him, so that's all that really matters. And Shiro is there to help him back out of the pod, but he doesn't linger like he did the first time—Keith hasn't made his move yet. He's gonna, though, as soon as they get this over with. Maybe he'll dip him again, that was fun.

"What are you smiling about?" Shiro asks once they're all back on the bridge, catching his eye. He doesn't look put out that Keith's been staring at him—kind of pleased, actually. After all, he loves him. Keith can't wait to hear it again.

"Nothing," he says, and tries to clear his head. There's time for all of that later. "Guys, there's one more thing."

Hunk and Pidge, already deep in discussion about their retrieved memories, look up. Coran looks up, too.

"Last loop, I snuck on to one of the cruisers to see what they had that could be causing the time loop," he says. "But they weren't causing it. They thought it was Voltron, actually. Their sensors were picking it up but they didn't even know what it was."

"And you said it was like, a glowy balloon that popped, right?" Hunk says thoughtfully.

"I don't think I used those words, but yes. If they're not causing it, I don't know how you guys are gonna stop it—"

Coran claps his hands. "I think I know what it is!"

There's a long pause.

"Please, do share," Allura says.

"It's a tear in space-time!" Coran brings up a hologram of a very familiar meteor. "It must be something very similar to the portal you all went through when you traveled across realities! It's possible Voltron's presence caused some sort of resonance that, rather than send you to another reality, reset time instead—back to the moment at which we came into its range in the first place."

"This far out?" Shiro asks.

Coran shrugs. "It's just a theory. Obviously there must be some trick to it, if some of us remember and others don't."

"So do you know how to stop it from happening?" Keith asks.

"Other than reversing course back out of range? I'm not sure." Coran starts flipping through holographic diagrams. "It will take some research!"

"Well, this is already closer than we've gotten before." Much, much closer. "If you come up with anything, it can't hurt to try it. Worst comes to worst, we'll just loop again."

"So everything we did before was a waste?" Hunk pouts.

"Not necessarily!" Coran points dramatically to the doorway. "To the lab!"

He heads out, followed by Hunk and Pidge and, after a moment, Allura too. Lance turns to look at Keith.

"If we're in a time loop, does that mean that everything we do for the next few hours will be erased? Like, no consequences?"

"Only if they can't figure out how to stop it," Keith points out. Lance pouts.

"Damn. At least tell me I didn't waste the loops before this."

"I'm pretty sure you spent two of them sleeping."

"...I'll take it. Smell ya later." He starts out too.

"Don't make too much of a mess!" Shiro calls after him.

"I won't!" The door slides shut. Shiro looks over at Keith.

"You're not going to help the scientists?" he asks.

"I've done all I can." Keith stretches. "I think I'm gonna try to relax a bit. Maybe hit the training deck. But there's something important I need to do, first."

"What's that?"

"This." He stretches up to give Shiro a kiss. When he steps back, Shiro's expression shifts from shock to awe. He's never gonna get tired of that, no matter how many loops he has to suffer through.

"...Have you done that every time?" Shiro manages to say, eventually.

"Ever since the second loop or so." Keith leans up for another kiss, and this time Shiro bends to meet him.

* * *

"I see it!" Keith shouts, dodging a fighter as he squints into the distance. There, again, amidst the wreckage of a cruiser—a bright growing light.

Now all they need to do is carry out the plan.

"On me!" Shiro calls, but it's easier said than done. They're still being swarmed, after all, and Keith can only do so much to help.

"Little help, guys?" Hunk calls, and Keith heads over, destroying as many fighters as he can on the way. Pidge gets there first, though, and together they fight towards the others.

"How much time do we have?" Lance grits. It's all they can do to gather at all; Keith looks over across the battlefield. He can't really see the light well enough from here, but...

"Not much," he says. Lance swears.

"I still kinda don't think this'll work," he adds in a mutter as the yellow and green lions finally push through to join the black lion. Red and blue are almost there, and Keith swoops over to clear a path.

"Think of it as cauterizing a wound," Shiro offers.

"I really don't think you can cauterize spacetime."

"Cauterizing isn't quite the right term, anyway," Allura says. "On your left, Lance."

"Thanks! And I know, but _still_."

"If it doesn't destabilize the tear like Coran said, we'll just try something different next time," Pidge says.

"STILL!"

"We're still going to try it," Shiro says. "Form Voltron!"

Keith sticks close by as they do. It's one thing to manage to get Voltron together in a battle like this; it's another to actually get to their target. There are still swarms of fighters in the way, and the light is definitely bigger than it was before.

"Hunk, shoulder cannon!" Shiro shouts as Keith does his best to give them a straight shot. They might not have time for a second. "Keith, get out of there!"

Keith dives. "Clear! Take the shot!"

"Fire!"

Blasts of energy erupt from Voltron's cannon, and the light bursts. Keith sees them meet in the blink of an eye, and then—he's back in the hangar once more.

And so is everyone else.

"...What just happened?" Hunk asks, and Keith realizes that if they're all here, they must _all remember,_ which means... it may or may not have worked, but at the very least, it _changed._ Even Coran is here.

"Is this... the time loop thing?" Lance asks, looking around the hangar entrance. "We're back in the castle, right?"

"Yeah," Keith says. "This is how it happened every other time. We showed up here. You guys all remember?"

"Well, I do," Lance responds. Shiro and the rest nod. Keith can't help but grin.

"Good," he says. "I was getting really tired of explaining." He turns to Coran as Lance and Pidge snort. "Does this mean it worked?"

"Well, we won't know for _sure_ until we head into battle again. 'Scuse me, number five." He picks up Pidge's arm and brings up her wrist display, flicking down the screen. "I can say with reasonable certainty that... it probably worked?"

"Yes!" Lance whoops and immediately half-tackles Hunk. Allura laughs. And when Shiro places his hand on Keith's shoulder, Keith turns and dips him again like he's been wanting to, because he can, and this time Shiro will remember all of it. Lance whistles and Pidge makes a disgusted noise, but they can just deal with it. No way is Keith letting go, now that he has Shiro for good.

"Let's celebrate!" Lance shouts, and Hunk cheers. Keith surfaces long enough to see Pidge hurry out after the two of them, followed by Allura and Coran.

"Remember we still have to fight later!" Shiro shouts after them, upside down and a little hoarse.

"You wanna go celebrate?" Keith asks.

Shiro blinks, and then smirks. "We could keep doing this a little longer."

Keith grins. "Fine with me."

**Author's Note:**

> im at [maternalcube](http://maternalcube.tumblr.com/) yo
> 
> anis art is [here!!!](http://anidragon.tumblr.com/post/176270132407/my-art-for-the-sheithreversebang)


End file.
